Take a look at PhotoFiltre and the number of buttons to be found in the various toolbars can be a little overwhelming to start with. The somewhat cluttered nature may be off-putting initially, but if you stick with the app you will find that it is pleasingly powerful and is a cut above the usual freeware image editors that clutter the market. In terms of raw power and features, this is a tool that is on a par with the GIMP, but it is more accessible.

The dazzling array of buttons may seem like clutter to start with, but it does mean that there are a large number of options available to you immediately without the need to navigate through endless menus. There is support for a wide range of image formats and the ability to batch process files is very useful.

A great feature of PhotoFiltre is its speed. Many image editors are large, unwieldy beasts that can take an age to load, but this is certainly not the case here. Effects, filters and transformations are also applied to images quickly. Whether you are looking to optimize your images for use on the web, or want to perform more creative edits, everything you need can be found in the app.

One of the problems with previous versions of the app was the lack of support for layers, but this is something that has been addressed in version 7. In addition to this, there is now also support for transparencies which opens up opportunities that were not previously available. This may not be the most attractive of programs, but if you can turn a blind eye to the way it looks, you have a powerful tool on your hands.

Verdict:

An aesthetically challenged app that deserves recognition for the power it brings free of charge.

There's a vast amount to learn, of course, and that's even before you start building your game. But there's plenty of documentation, tutorials, demos and sample projects to point you in the right direction.

The package is now entirely free, too - no annoying limitations, nag screens or anything else. Epic now only requires that you pay a 5% royalty after the first $3,000 of revenue per product per quarter. And even then, you "pay no royalty for film projects, contracting and consulting projects such as architecture, simulation and visualization."